Today we all handle our mobile phones as if it were the simplest thing in the world, and as if behind each one of them there were not a lot of years of research and technology now put at the service of the client. The truth is that we are so used to it that we take it for granted that mobiles work by themselves and there is nothing behind. However, today we suggest you remember those old times when having a mobile phone was almost a luxury, and above all, understand how a mobile phone works from the base.
When we talk about a mobile phone, coverage is what will allow us to both make calls and connect to the network. Although today smartphones come with an airplane mode that makes any connection option disappear and allows it to be used in this mode in certain situations, in the early phases of telephony this did not make sense, since a telephone was mainly used for to call. But how do we connect to the network? What happens from when we dial a number or type an address until someone answers or receives the data on the mobile?
Mobile telephony
What a terminal does when you press the call button is to look for a signal from the telephone operator with which you have contracted the line. As soon as it finds the closest one, it connects to it and establishes a connection with it in order to allow the call to be made. That is, the base structure would be this:
Mobile phone> Operator signal> Connection with the operator> The call is made.
In the case of received calls, the equation is the same, although in that case instead of asking the operator’s signal server for permission to connect, who is asked is the user’s phone.
All this seems very simple, but in reality, it is not so simple. In fact, to ensure an instant connection, as well as to guarantee calls and data, the phones themselves, without the user requesting it, are sending data to the companies. These data allow the coverage signal to be kept up to date, as well as the basic updates that are installed in the mobile smartphone terminals.
Why does a call drop?
What we have explained above would be the process of how a mobile phone works in broad strokes, but in reality, when there is a lack of coverage in motion, we can lose that call or the internet connection. Why if we had already established it? Well, because when we move, we do not establish a single connection that remains fixed all the time. If when we move we change places, the connection may have to move to another of those signals from our operator. In these changes, when the coverage is good, the user does not even notice it. The problem comes when the signal is not enough, and in that case, you may notice that the voice is lost, that there are cuts or that we directly find that the coverage is completely gone and we cannot do anything with the phone.
Logically, with the new networks, the connection may be better or worse depending on the signal that we are capturing on our mobile phone, a signal that you can identify within the icon of your own device and it tells you what type of network you are connecting to within those available from your operator. Did you know all this about the operation of a mobile phone?